My Bruise
by Jeanne Marie
Summary: Boy meets boy. Boys meet girl. Girl leaves boys. Over a decade later, they find themselves all in the same room. AU


Author's Note: This was written in response to missmonkeh's prompt on inception_kink for "young A/A/E, pulling scams and living fast, until the foundations crack." Contains hints of underage sex, drug use, abortion, polyamory and prostitution. The title is from Spring Awakening. "Oh, I'm gonna bruise you. Oh, you're gonna be my bruise."

ooo

Arthur and Eames drift in and out of each other's lives and it's all right because he knows that Eames is his, irrevocably. Nothing will ever hurt as much as the first time they parted, the first time they _were_ parted. Back then he didn't know that they'd always find each other.

-_-  
The public defender looked down at where Charlie sat handcuffed to the table. The act was intended to make him feel small and cowed. It didn't work. "Where the fuck is my friend?"_

_"Don't use language like that. Judge Merrick will rip you to pieces."_

_He glared, ignoring her questions, until she started to look uncomfortable._

_She sighed. "You might as well forget about him. He's gone. And you, young man, if you can manage to appear contrite and keep your mouth shut, are on your way to boot camp."  
_-

"What are you even doing in Kenya?" Arthur asks.

"You know me, a scam. The poker chips in these small-time casinos are embarrassingly easy to reproduce. I just have to case the neighborhood thoroughly, sort out my escape routes, before I attempt anything."

"Watch yourself," he says. "I can't protect you from here."

Eames laughs. "Take photos of Hirohito's tomb for me, would you?"

"Why?"

"Oh, I don't know. It seems slightly less dreary than the only other Japanese landmarks I can think of."

-_  
London was an awful, sprawling city, with weather that surely induced a good number of suicides. But it was where Arthur had to be._

_The address he had was a dead end, but he kept trying other places in the neighborhood, and then the next, and the next. Three and a half weeks later, he found Tink in a dingy pub full of people who looked at Arthur like he'd rolled in skunk before entering._

_"Not here," Tink said, gesturing at the door. Dutifully, Arthur followed him three blocks to a spare, second floor apartment._

_Tink didn't say a word until he'd closed the door and was facing Arthur. Even then, the first thing he did was grab Arthur and hold on as if afraid he planned on running away. Because that was a real concern, considering that he'd spent five years looking for the idiot. "Shit," he breathed into Arthur's ear. "Shit. Jesus shit."_

_"Hi, Tink."_

_He pulled away then. "Eames, Charlie, please," he said, kissing him. "I'm not a gutter-punk any more."_

_"And I'm Arthur, Eames."_

_"Arthur." He grinned. "I think I like it."  
_-

"This is Ariadne," Cobb says. "She's going to be our architect."

Arthur can't say a word in greeting. His throat has closed up on him.

Ariadne. She's got to be at least twenty-eight years old and she still looks like a little girl, though a hipper, more polished one. If he didn't actually know her, she would be indistinguishable from the rest of the ex-pat student horde.

She doesn't say anything either, choosing instead to favor him with a short nod. Most likely this is just as surreal for her as it is for him.

-_  
It was in the Bay Area that they saw this tiny, impossibly tiny little thing with nothing but an overstuffed backpack and really giant eyes._

_Charlie watched her lift the wallet off of the manager of the supermarket where he and Tink were trying to grab some beer (and food, if they had time). The man's empty back pocket had him looking at the two of them instead of her. While Tink tried to declare their innocence, two bottles slipped out of his jacket and smashed on the floor._

_"Little bastards-"_

_They jumped over the mess of broken glass and foam and bolted._

_Instantly Charlie announced they were going searching for her._

_Thinking they were going for retribution, Tink was all for it. "It's her fault I'm so fucking hungry right now," he said._

_Charlie grunted in agreement as he drove. The beer would have been filling, yeah.  
_-

When Cobb says he's going to get Eames, there are no clear reasons to object, but a churning in Arthur's gut tells him it would be a bad idea. He does everything he can, even making a list of other people. Closer people, who would do almost as good a job and are not currently abiding in Certain Deathsville, Africa. Cobb only gives him a strange look and heads for the airport. The man is completely intractable when he sets his mind on something.

-_  
Arthur came very close to pursing his lips in disapproval, but managed to restrain himself. "You didn't wear a tie."_

_"No, Ch- Arthur. I did not wear a tie. I do not __**like**__ ties. Are these people that snobbish?"_

_"No, they're not at all. Don't get all defensive with them, either."_

_Eames sighed quietly. "I feel like I'm meeting your parents."_

_Arthur didn't say that it wasn't anything like that, except where it sort of was. Eames needed to like the Cobbs on his own before he could deal with how much Arthur cared about them. For now, they were just business associates._

_"Um. Dominic, Mal. This is Eames, the one I was telling you about."_

_Mal smiled at him, cool and polite. Willing to give him a chance for Arthur's sake. "Nice to meet you, Mr. Eames. Tell me. Do you have a first name?"_

_"I do. Arthur."_

_"Really?" She looked amused._

_"No," Arthur answered firmly. "No, not really."_

_"No," Eames echoed, his grin widening ever-so-slightly. "It's Charles."_

_Behind Mal's back, Arthur's scowl promised payment as he mouthed the word "asshole"._

_"I wish I never went looking for you," he said later, after the Cobbs had taken Eames under and decided, yes, he did have potential. Good find, Arthur._

_"No, you don't." Eames smiled as he pulled him closer, and Arthur let him.  
_-

She's already there in the warehouse when Eames walks in with Saito, Yusuf, and Cobb. He rocks back on his heels. There are few things that can make Eames simply stand in one place and blink. This, apparently, is one of them, but he recovers quickly.

Warning him would have been the considerate thing to do here. If he had, though, Eames wouldn't have come. Originally Arthur tried to head this off at the pass, but he's learned something after two days of pretending not to know her. Simply put, he can't handle it without Eames here.

Slowly he's accepting the existence of his own cowardice.

"Mr. Eames," she says when there are no other hands left to shake. "Hello. I'm Ariadne."

"A pleasure, mademoiselle." It's the sort of thing someone says before kissing a lady's hand, but he doesn't. Instead he asks if anyone in the group has been to Sydney. She goes back to her sketchbooks, incorporating the lessons Arthur gave her about mazes, while Eames continues to play the polite, charming professional, chattering away with Saito about Circular Quaye and the Sydney Central Business District.

-_-  
The sun shone directly in his face, obnoxious and cheery. As he rolled over, he moaned, scratched himself, and saw Tink sitting on the edge of the bed, rocking slightly._

_"You cold?" Charlie tried to pull him closer, but Tink resisted, something he pretty much never did. "Hey. What's with you?"_

_"She's gone. She took off."  
_-

One or two of the new arrivals are talking about leaving to take care of various things outside the warehouse. Cobb tells Arthur to take Ariadne under to work on her structures. He enters the dream wearing not the brown trousers that go with his suit but dirty black cargo pants that are several sizes too big. He changes quickly, before she gets a chance to see. She builds a cul-de-sac, a suburban paradise. Nondescript Levitt house after nondescript Levitt house. Though the detail is exquisite and the layout keeps everything contained nicely, her heart is not in it.

Neither is his, truth be told. He hops the fence of a house with pink flamingos on the lawn and takes a dip in the sparkling swimming pool.

After the timer runs out, Eames is the only one to welcome them back to the waking world.

"Ariadne," he says, tasting the name. "My my. You have grown up to be unbearably pretentious, haven't you. Slay any bulls today?"

To her credit, she seems unruffled, merely sitting up and peering at him curiously. "You sound so... You were never this English, except maybe when you got high."

"Yes, well, my deportation may have had something to do with that." He's wearing the accent, wearing Eames, as a shield against her. Not for the first time, Arthur finds cause to doubt how much of that boy was real, how much of the man is real. He realizes that she has no idea what Eames can do, but she may not be surprised.

-_-  
"Oh my God, sir, my sister! You have to come. I think she took something, fucking idiot."_

_They always, without fail, followed Tink into the alley. Rocky kept them there, but he was the one who broke through their innate skepticism. The pain and fear in his voice sounded so authentic. And he howled loud enough for Charlie to know exactly what was going on. When everything quieted down it meant Rocky was making her miraculous recovery. When her voice started rising in concert with his, it meant they were putting on a show of bickering to convince the marks not to call the ambulance. It meant they were almost on their way back. This system allowed him to get the valuables, straighten things up, and get out of the car with no one noticing.  
_-

The silence continues to a ridiculous point. Arthur decides to get up from the chaise lounge so that Eames isn't the only one standing. "We were busted," he explains.

"And not too terribly long after your departure. You wouldn't happen to know anything about that, would you, sweetheart?" Never mind that it happened over six months later. Sometimes, Arthur hates being right.

After all this time, Eames blames her for everything falling apart. Not in any direct fashion, as he's insinuating, but deep down, in a way that defies conscious logic, like a child. If she hadn't left them, they would have been happy forever.

Does he hate where they've ended up that much?

"Fuck you," she says, her voice rising with each syllable. If only Cobb could see her now, the sheltered, inquisitive student who just wants to design skyscrapers some day. "You know what? Fuck you for even thinking that. I can still kick your ass, Eames."

"Oh, is that right?" He cocks his head in dark amusement. "I was in prison for three years, love. I learned all sorts of things they don't teach in your university. Give it your best shot."

-_-  
There were certain advantages to being short. She proved that when they caught up with her and she punched Tink in the balls hard enough to make him puke._

_"Motherfucking midget Rocky," he groaned miserably._

_Charlie laughed so hard his vision went gray.  
_-

"Stop acting as though I didn't do you a favor by leaving," she says to Eames.

The words stick in Arthur's head and twist his insides. "What," he says, his voice flat.

-_-  
It was a ball-field for triple A or something. The team must have been disbanded because it had gotten dusty and overgrown. Tink had gone on a mission to break into the concession stand. Charlie and Rocky were lying on the field. His head was on second base, her head was on his stomach. She reached out with thin fingers and plucked the cigarette out of his mouth. "I'm glad I almost got you busted," she said._

_"Yeah?" He tickled her ribs to make her rise so he could slide out from underneath and straddle her. "I might be, too." His hands seemed so much bigger holding her little wrists to the turf. A shiver ran through her body as he leaned over and kissed her neck._

_From the time they found him trying unsuccessfully to bust a door down with his shoulder to when they broke into the Salvation Army shop a few hours later, Tink barely spoke to them._

_Rocky tried talking to him quietly, but he ignored her. "Oh, Tink," she sighed. An almost pitying expression on her face, she kissed him, shoved him onto the mattress and climbed into his lap._

_With one stray finger she snagged Charlie's belt loop and tugged until he followed her down.  
_-

"I'd be very careful where I tread next, if I were you." Eames gets that same glittery look in his eyes right before he draws a gun and blows out the back of a projection's head. Before Arthur can intervene, she's crossed the distance between them and she's touching Eames's arm.

Her eyes are misted over. "Jesus, I loved you. You know that. I did. And I don't _want_ hi..." She glances at Arthur, who suddenly decides they both need a fucking slap.

-_-  
Her distractedness was beginning to drive the both of them a little crazy. The trucker she stumbled into, it took her so long to find his wallet that by the time she had it, he grabbed her and was shaking the shit out of her. Charlie had to hit him from behind with a metal garbage can lid to get her free._

_"What the fuck is wrong with you?" he yelled._

_She looked at him like she wanted to knock several of his teeth out with the fat end of a beer bottle, which was funny because she only ever looked at Tink like that._

_That night Kiki told them she'd found a guy willing to pay twenty bucks for a hand job from a boy. Tink went last time, so Charlie took it, went behind the 7-11 to jack off an old man. As expected, it didn't end there. The old man wanted more, but he was willing to pay for it and there was at least room to move around in his car._

_Inside the shop, Charlie bought a few things. Deodorant, bread, peanut butter. Virginia Slims for Kiki and Newports for himself and Tink to share.  
_-

"We are not doing this," he says, feeling his face grow hot from anger and disbelief. He won't be treated like one of Eames's poker chips. "Believe me when I say I will shoot anyone in this room who cares more about ancient history than the job at hand. There is too much at stake here."

Somehow he constitutes an outside threat. In response to his tone, they cling to each other instinctively, Eames putting an arm around her waist. Soon they're embracing, their reassurances drifting over as indistinct murmuring. When Arthur blinks, Eames loses an inch and thirty pounds. Ariadne also gets thinner and her hair becomes shorter and ragged at the ends.

-_-  
When he got back, Tink was on the front step, sucking on a Virginia Slim. "What happened to you?" he asked, eyes wide._

_"Got jumped." Charlie tried to breathe deeply and made a face as his ribs protested. "They took everything."_

_"Shit, Charlie."_

_"Fucking waste of an evening." He hung his head and felt Tink's fingers grasp the back of his neck._

_"Well, that's what you get for being a filthy whore," he said lightly, pressing a kiss to Charlie's temple. "I get the next one." He left the cigarette hanging between his lips so he could raise Charlie's t-shirt and check out the damage. "Oh, shit, that's bad. What should we do for that, ice?"_

_"I just want to go to bed." He caught himself zoning out on the curls of second-hand smoke and it occurred to him. Kiki didn't care if they smoked indoors. It didn't matter what they did, as long as they cleaned up after themselves and were gone by the time she got back in the morning. "What are you doing out here?"_

_"Um."_

_"Tink."_

_"The smoke bothers her."_

_Rocky was dozing fitfully on the couch while an infomercial played on t.v. She looked jacked, strung out. The room smelled faintly of puke._

_"Shit." Kiki had been really decent, but if that stripper had given them H while he was gone, he was going to choke her with his bare hands._

_"Look, I was sitting here watching cartoons and she came in like this," Tink whispered. "I don't know."_

_Charlie closed his eyes, wishing he could tell whether Tink was lying or not._

_"Just..." Tink looked at Rocky. "Just be nice to her for a while, all right?"_

_"When am I not nice?"_

_"Whatever. Extra nice."_

_She stirred and let out a moan. Shushing gently, Tink sat down on the couch. He touched her hair and let her use his thigh for a pillow._

_There was a pair of bloody panties stuffed in the garbage can in the bathroom. Charlie didn't make the connection between that and her strange mood for the last week, beyond the obvious. Not that he __**couldn't**__ figure it out, really he chose not to.  
_-

Arthur manages to catch Eames telling her that she's "still so small, goddamn."

He very much wants to bash their heads together, but he's relieved.

It's not the first time they've made him feel this way.


End file.
